CHM 147: Thinking of Homeschooling High School?

Welcome to the Christian homeschool Mom's podcast. On this show, the goal is to encourage the Christian mom to homeschool with joy during this limited season of your life and to stay hopeful on your homeschool journey. I would love for you to apply all of these practical homeschool tips to help you in your everyday life as a mom of faith. And I'm Dmitriya, your host, a veteran homeschool mom of two beautiful daughters, one in college and one in high school. I'm a wife, a songwriter, a podcaster, and a child of the King and I'm super happy to be your host. So this podcast is sponsored by Faith Media and Impact podcast Coach, which is a service that supports women podcasters to boldly share their voices and their powerful messages through the medium of podcasting. You can find out more about our podcast coaching services and courses by visiting Impact podcastcoach dot com. Are you wondering about homeschooling in the high school years? So, as I mentioned a moment ago, I did graduate one daughter from our high school at home, and I have a daughter at home entering tenth grade this upcoming year. So homeschooling high school has its challenges. I understand all about that, and on this week's podcast, I'm sharing a flashback from a video that I recorded on YouTube last year. It's called Homeschooling high School Advice. And by the way, my channel there is devoted to all things homeschooling and entrepreneurship best of recently, so if you're interested in finding out more, you can follow my channel there at mom zest and that's m O m zest. So if you're worried about homeschooling high school, don't fear. There are a load of resources available nowadays to help you. In the year's past, it was extremely difficult, I think, to find information to support the parents of homeschoolers, especially if your kids were over sixth grade, so once they hit middle school, it was really difficult to find helpful information. And this is maybe eight years ago. But today you'll find that the issue is being solved by more parents that are stepping up to help and to fill in the gaps with their own platforms on YouTube or podcast channels and just offering resources that are especially for high schoolers. So I found a few that I've really enjoyed, and I'm going to mention one that I've been enjoying watching over the past year. Her name is CJ. She has a channel called Homeschooling through High School, So if you can look that up on YouTube, you'll find CJ's videos. They are very helpful and if you have kids in high school, I recommend that you watch her channel. Also, I'd be remissed if I didn't mention Lee Bins and her tried and true resources over at the Home Scholar, and you can find her resources on YouTube as well, in addition to an interview that Lee and I had several years ago, so I'll leave a link to that interview where she helped us through some of our high school questions. And this is way back when my kids were still in elementary school, so it's way back in my archives, but it's still helpful information for today. So I'll be sharing more resources throughout the rest of this podcast. But if you have high school kids or kids soon to be in the high school years, I have some tried and true, time tested tips and resources that can help you with getting your teams through those years at home. And these are tips that have helped me over the years with my own daughters, and I hope they're going to help you as well. So what I'm doing today is replaying a video from my YouTube channel that I recorded last year. On my channel, it did get a little bit of traction and it got some views, and I was happy to be able to share that video on my channel. But I want to make sure that I help as many people as possible with this video, so I decided to replay that video on today's podcast. And the name of the video is tips for homeschooling high School. So I'm going to replay that video here today. If you've already watched the video last year or at some point, then this is just a replay, and stay tuned if you feel like this could help you. So sit back with your cup of tea or coffee and listen in to this next twenty minutes as I share some tips from this video for my YouTube channel. Hi. Everyone, on today's video, I'm gonna be talking with you guys about homeschooling high school. My experience with high school is that I have graduated one child through high school and we homeschooled all the way through twelfth grade. So I have some tips and advice about that. So now we're going to talk about high school because it's a big one, and I know a lot of people who are determining to keep their children home for ninth through twelfth grades are wondering about how this works. Can they do it? Is this a scary thing to do? Because it does feel scary sometimes? So how do we do this? So? I have a couple of tips for you. The first tip I have for you is if you are currently school and your middle school child that would be six, seventh and eighth grade, start there. Start in middle school already preparing with the idea that you have for high school. What I mean by that is, if your student is thinking about going into a specific field, go ahead and let them have that time in middle school to really discover and figure out who they are, because that's the time when they really can just get involved in a lot of different things and figure it out. They'll have the opportunity in middle school to really try their hands at different activities to see what they like in what kind of field they want to go into. So if you want more information about how to get your middle school prepared for high school, look at my middle school video and I'll put it up in the Lake there and also in the notes below. The second thing you want to do with high schoolers is if you have had that chance to kind of get them ready for high school and that mindset that they need starting a middle school, it's going to be a little bit easier for you coming into high school. Also, if you're bringing them home from middle school, you might have to do a little bit of deep programming from the public school or private school system and the way of looking at things in order to kind of switch into a homeschool mindset. The second thing you need to do is to start with the end in mind. You need to create a high school roadmap that depends on whether or not they are going to college, they're going to trade school, they're going to the military, or they are going to work right after school. All of these things come into play and when it comes to what their high school career should look like. But I always recommend going for the most academically challenging as possible for your students so that all of their opportunities are open to them in case they should change their mind in the eleventh grade and say, oh, by the way, mom, I know I said I didn't really want to go to university, and I wanted to go to trade school, and then I want to do something else, but I changed my mind. I think I want to get into university. Now, well it's a little late in the game, right, So we want especially if the classes they've been taking those first two years in high school, we're not going to help to get into the type of school that they want to get into. All of that changes, all of that really pulls into play. So you need to have a roadmap, and I recommend that you find a resource that will help you to plan out their high school years, their credits, the classes they're going to be taking, and everything that they need in order to graduate into your state effectively. Not just graduate, though you want them to graduate, hopefully with honors. Hopefully they graduate with the types of classes that are going to really help prepare them for what they'll be taking in college. If they're going off to college, or if they're going into the military, or if you're going into a police academy, these classes need to sort of be tailored towards what their future goals are. Now we understand students change their minds. Teenagers don't always know what they want, because neither do we as adults, so that is something to keep in mind. However, just being flexible, remaining open, keeping some margin in the beginning of planning lets them have room to change their mind when they're in the eleventh grade. So if you've already got them in those not just the core academic subjects, but those that are a little bit academically challenging, in case they decide, hey, I think I want to be an engineer, then it's easier for them to have all the credits. Stating, for example, in state of California, we only have to have I think literally we only have to have two maths in high school to graduate. It's either two or three. But the recommendation if you're planning to go into a UC school, which is the University of California school system, you would need at least three to four. If it's a UC school, you need four math credits. If it's a state school you need three, I believe. And then if you are just wanting to graduate, I think you just need to. So you got to look at what those plans are. If your kids planning go to university, they need to take a math all the way through twelfth grade. In California, So look at your state regulations, go to the HSLDA dot org website and have them look at what they're going to be needing in order to graduate and in order to go to the universe sees of choice. My recommendation if they're totally not willing to go to any university at all, or if you're unwilling to pay for university, or they're not able to get scholarships or takeout loans or anything like that for college. Specifically, if you want them to go to community college because it is significantly cheaper, significantly less expensive, that route can be taken as well. So look into things like dual credit where you can transfer half of their high school credits while they're in high school, taking those college credits and transfer them over into a university setting, and they would have shaved off two years of work at university, two years of expenses, and then they get their degree a little earlier as well, two years earlier. So there's different ways you can look at it. It's good to have some resources on hand and people you can go to for support. I know there are a couple of great homeschool coaches who are actually helping and supporting people whose kids are going into college. Okay, so I'm not certain if she's still offering college counseling services, but I would definitely if you have any specific questions about college, I would ask Pam Andrews and I can leave her information just contact her. I don't I don't know for sure, and I haven't even talked to her to verify this before I did this recording. But the last I heard she was doing college support so or high school to college support, that kind of thing. So she can help with, like I guess, transcripts and that kind of thing. So you might want to talk to her if you really need someone to help you through this. There are other moms who have been there, done that. I know. Belinda Bullard has graduated several of her students or high school students who might want to check her out. I've graduated once so far. You can ask me for support, but a lot of these women who have gone before me have already graduated many multiple homeschool students and are actually helping with transcripts. There's also another lady that I would like to bring up, and her name is Denise Boyko. She actually lives in my area. She wrote this book. It's called Homeschools and Headed for College. This book his great resource for information. It's really helpful for Californians, but it's helpful for anybody homeschooling who needs some support with learning. How to create your plan, you know, your roadmap, how to personalize your middle school programs so it prepares your student for high school. And then basically she really breaks down the information about high school transcripts, credits, the portfolio, the diploma, the transcripts, creating those customized courses so that all of this falls into place, and then you know community college during high school what that looks like, and employment transitions. There's lots of timetables in here. Information about essays, how to make those essays, how to make those portfolios, how to do those transcripts is here. So I recommend her because I've met her personally, I have talked to her. She also has an article on my block that I'll leave a link to. But her name is Dennis Boyco. She's awesome resource and so you can find out a lot about homeschooling your high school kid through reading that. I read through the book and it helped me with my daughter when she was graduating high school, So find those resources, being sure to keep the end in mind when you get started with high school. So the next thing is to determine their credits that they need to graduate and to choose that curriculum. We all know that that's part of the roadmap process, but you just want to make sure that you're choosing curriculum that's good for them and good for you. You have to decide whether or not you're teaching. You're a high school or other people are, and I highly recommend outsourcing. So if you're going to be outsourcing, the curriculum is going to be dependent upon the company you're using to outsource those teachers, those tutors what they're using. You can't just buy a whole bunch of curriculum and hire someone and say hey, I want you to teach them this. You could, you might have to pay a premium fee for that because they have to take time to studying the material material that you purchase in order to teach your child. So usually they come with their own resources and you can give people that will help your child. So whether that's mathematics, you might think you're going to purchase teaching textbooks, or Saxon, but you need a tutor. Sometimes that tutor won't be able to work with all those different math programs, and maybe they have a specific program they're using. So curriculum really is dependent upon who you outsource. And if you're not planning to outsource, and you're doing everything in housing, you are completely in charge of that curriculum and how it's run. So hate that in mind as you're choosing curriculum for your students. My daughter currently is with an online school, so hard curriculum is chosen by that school and I have nothing to do with that specific curriculum choices. However, I do choose a lot of the books that we're reading, the materials that we're enjoying together. There are fun light reads and things that we're doing during our reading time together that I choose. Also, I select information about world history that I read to her, and that's fine. So we do those things mostly during the summer because during the school year I don't like to pile on a lot of things on top of her virtual school. So be thinking about how that looks in the everyday life of your student if they're in virtual school. If you're having to get tutors for them. If you're putting them on a platform like out school, if you are hiring tutors to come to your house, if you're doing in virtual school, all that changes your curriculum choices. The next thing is to step back and step back all the way. Let them take charge, let them, let them do it, let them roll with it. They're older, they're going off to college or military or career or job, tech school, trade school, whatever. So they're going to be super independent in just a few years and they are going to say goodbye mommy and they're going to do their life. So you're preparing them for real life. And that means you cannot be on their case all the time, harping over their shoulder, Did you do this? Did you do that? Did you do that? That's too much, that's too much like layoff, let them learn. And so we may have to guide them. Yes, so we may have to get on their case a couple of times. Yes, maybe we have to, you know, to encourage them, to push them a little harder. But that shouldn't be every day. If they're not taking charge of their assignments and it's because they don't want to, then that's a heart issue. Right, If they're not taking charge of their assignments because they're confused about what to do and how to keep everything together, then that is a time management issue, and that can be addressed with the use of a planner. You can teach them how to use a planner and teach them that. Every time they have a class, put it on their planner so they won't ever forget to show up to their virtual class. If they're doing things with you, they're going to show up at a certain time. They have to respect your time. If they're supposed to be at the kitchen table by nine o'clock, then they need to be at the kitchen table at nine o'clock because you have rules that you've been forced for them to protect you and to protect them. It helps them to learn how to be a good manager of their time. So if it's just a time management issue, you can train them and teach them. If it's a heart issue and they're just not doing the work, that's a different story that has to be addressed differently. But if those two things aren't the issues, then usually it just takes a little bit of reminding. You know, if they're a little bit off track, to get them back on track. So that's why I say it's it's good to step back and step all the way back with your high schoolers and let them take control. Let them practice being in charge of their own schedules. They need to know what times their classes start, and they need to know what times to turn in their assignments and what's expected of them. And they need to get it done. They need to get it done. And if they're not able to, then you can help them and coax them along a little bit, you know, to teach them how to get these things done. But after a little bit of hand holding and modeling, they should have it. So that's why I said middle school is a great time to teach these skills because in high school it's fast paced and they need to just get done. They need to get done. So and again all of what I'm saying is based on my perspective. I'm homeschooling, which is more they're structured with my high school students. Now you are unschooling, you probably have a different philosophy. It looks different in your home and maybe your kids have a lot more leisure and maybe they are doing their own thing. But maybe it's with the family or with the group, or maybe with the co op, and maybe you're just maybe you're enjoying a life together a little bit differently. So again this is all dependent upon how you see homeschooling. So things to keep in mind just to help those high schoolers out when they're feeling a little stressed okay, because they're going to get stressed out sometimes, is you know, to really do a mental health checks. Make sure they're okay, check in with them. Don't just leave them to their own devices. Even though you're stepping back, you're not stepping all the way out of their life. So check in, make sure that they're okay. If they need any support with the subject, they should be able to verbalize that and tell you that they need help if they're hiding something that's not good, because that's not healthy. Right when they go off and in the real world, they're going to need to be able to share with their supervisor or with their colleagues and peers and their cohorts at school what their struggles are so they can get the support they need, the extra two they need, the extra time they need. Maybe they need some extra types of supports in place in school that could help them, maybe some accommodations or something, but they need to be able to advocate for themselves, so they have to speak up. So teaching them in high school to let you know when they need help is a really good thing to do. Let them know that you care and that you need them to talk to you, so that if they need support, they have someone. And if you can't do anything for them, the least you can do is find them. You know someone that can help them, So get them a coach, or get them a counselor or a psychologist, someone that can help with whatever their needs are. And like I said, the other suggestion is teaching them how to use a task list and a planner, making sure that they're putting all of their tasks in every day so they're not leaving anything out. It's just practice. Once they get in the practice and a habit of making lists and planning, it becomes easier for them. And make sure that if they're overwhelmed with specific subjects, that you teach them to take those subjects in the morning when they have the freshest mind. Maybe it's in the afternoon. I don't know. Everybody's different, So if they're morning people and they are fresh in the morning. Maybe they want to tackle the hard stuff in the morning, But not everybody's like that. Some people need to get like the easy stuff out of the way and then they tackle the hard stuff and it's easier for them to do it that way. So find out what's best for them and show them how to really tune into what their specific needs are, and then they can regulate themselves and say, this is what I need to do in order to get through this subject, so I can make a good grain on this subject, so I can learn as much as I can in this subject. I need to take this subject in the afternoon, or I don't need to do the subject in the morning. And also keep in mind, keep in mind all of the activities you guys are doing as a family. If your whole afternoon is booked, they're probably not gonna have time to get their work done in the afternoon. So maybe they really literally have to do everything in the morning. Teach them how to manage that time effectively and to do the hardest things when it's easiest for them. Another thing is atmosphere and environment. Taking them outside, or you wouldn't be taking them outside. But like encouraging them to get outside, to go out take their school work outside in the sun when it's nice and warm. It's a great way for them to get that vitamin D and just feel really good that sunlight, you know, not scorching heat. You know, nobody wants to do anything when it's that hot. But but just when it's nice out, you know, just to get things rolling with their body system feels better and when they're warm and they feel comfortable and calm. I know my daughter feels better when she's warm because we you know, we all have the iron deficiency sometimes and we just feel cold a lot. So when we feel warm, we can think better and we can do our work better and we're more productive. So I have to stay warm. My daughter feels the same, so I know she works better that way. Even in college, she'll call me and tell me I'm really cold right now and I can't focus. I'm like, oh, go get your sweater and you know, just stay warm, or just drink some tea or whatever. But sometimes getting outside or even breaking up the day a little bit so they go somewhere and come back and then do their work makes them feel more productive. So figure out have them figure out how they work the best. And then lastly, I just wanted to say, as far as some tips for high school ers, make sure they're eating well and that they get a lot of rest. I know high school students don't like to eat healthy. Usually kids this age are just grabbing whatever they can easily grab that they don't have to create or make. They don't have to get in the kitchen and fix anything. They want some grab and go stuff. So you can teach them how to make healthy foods for themselves. You know, maybe the day before they pack it up and they can have it the next day. If they're not going to do all of that, then you might actually have to make it happen. You the parent may have to say, Okay, this is what we're doing this week. I see you're not having enough veggies and fruit, so I'm gonna put this fruit bowl out and I'm gonna have some easy, grab healthy snacks and a big bowl for you and you can just have that throughout the day. Because our students need to stay hydrated and they need to stay nourished, but they often don't have the time or the energy, or the knowledge or the maturity to know how to go in and select the items they need because they're on a time crunch and they're not thinking I want to be in the kitchen and for thirty minutes preparing a meal. They want to go back in their bedrooms and do their work so they could get on their phone. So you might have to make it happen. And the very last thing, I'm going to give a couple of benefits to homeschooling high school because I didn't want to do a whole video on that, so a couple of the things and I found some of this. I'm going to just tell you the resource. You can check this out. It's called Dadcresto dot com, a homeschool dad who runs his own blog about homeschooling. Because he didn't see many blogs with homeschooling dads being represented, so I wanted to bring up some of his points real quick, and then I'll leave a link to this article so you can go check it out. He says that results of homeschooling or that kids tend to have better academic performance. And there's also I had a statistic so we know that in twenty twenty twenty twenty one, I'm going to read from also another Statistic website. It says that there were about three point seven million homeschool students in the years twenty twenty through twenty one, and that went up significan, we know because of COVID, but it used to be two point five million in twenty nineteen, so it's up to three point seven million during the pandemic. That's a lot of kids, and so now not everybody who started homeschooling is going to continue or has continued, but for those who have, there are definitely some benefits to home education. We know that homeschool students have better academic performance. They tend to score better on their SAT and ACT scores. Why I don't know, because I do realize that many public and private school students score very high on their tests as well, so I don't think it's just a homeschooling thing. I think though, that the kids who are homeschools who are scoring well is because their focus is on studying for that test and they don't have a lot of other things to block out, whereas I kind of admire people who are in the school system because they're happy to block out a lot of internal inputs and things happening at the school that are distracting them, and they're still doing well some of them. So that said, homeschool students are shown to perform on average a little higher academically, the self esteem and happiness seems to be higher, and they will say that there's less negative peer pressure usually and also that depends on the types of people that they hang around with, even in the homeschool community, you know, or if they're on their own and they don't have and they're isolated, they don't have any anybody that can be an issue. So if those things are not issues, then they tend to have less negative peer pressure. So I'm not going to be all like blanket statement for all homeschool community or all private and public schools. It's not like that. In my mind, I see that there's issues, there's pros and cons to both. But this is what some people definitely are saying are beneficial for homeschooling. And then a lot of them attend college, which we know that that's a high percentage from the homeschool community, a good large percentage of that. Now, granted you know you've there's a competitive view because there's many many private schools that put out highly high academic scholars into these Ivy League schools. And so if you're comparing the homeschoolers to the private schools that are that are producing these types of students, then you know you might look differently at homeschooling. So it just depends on how you want to see it. But if you see yourself as one of those who's amongst a group of people that are successful, then that's going to help you to homeschool you're a high schooler because you have that positive mindset about homeschooling high school. It doesn't work for everybody, and it shouldn't work for everybody because everybody has a different pair pants to wear, and we're all different people with different needs and different places in our life. So if I don't homeschool the rest of high school, I'm not going to feel bad about it. And I think we were coming out of that era where we're feeling as homeschool moms where we're feeling like we have to be right or die, and we feel like we have to like stick it all the way out to the end and do this thing. But I really feel like we need to give ourselves the freedom to fluctuate, make choices that are best for our students at that time and season of their life and our lives, with no guilt and no shame if it's public school or private school, even with all the things are going on in the world, you pray for your children, you pray over them, you trust God with them, and you do what'spect in your situation. So that's the freedom I want to give you. As a homeschool mom. Talking to someone who might be considering homeschooling high school or might not feel like you can do high school, It's okay either way. It's okay just for yourself to do what God has called you to do and what you know is best for your students. All right, That's all I have for you, and I hope this video has been helpful to you. Have a blessed week and happy homeschooling. Hey, friends, I hope this has been super helpful to you, and I pray that I've encouraged you through this video that if you are planning to homeschool through high school, you can do this. There are resources available to help you and people like me that are out here willing to help. So if you have any additional questions about homeschool and your high school er. Please not hesitate to reach out to me. You can reach me at Christian homeschool Moms dot com. And that's all I have for you on this show, and I'll see you or talk to you in a couple of weeks with more interviews as well as information about homeschooling in the different stages of your child's life. Talk to you soon and happy homeschooling.